"Now," said the king, calmly, "now that I have collected my dearest treasures, I will go and see what is going on."
But Marie Antoinette held him back. "There is destruction, treachery, and murder outside. Crime may break in here and overwhelm us, but we ought not to go out and seek it."
"Well," said the king, "we will remain here and await what comes."
And turning to his valet, who was then entering, Louis continued:
"Bring me my chocolate, I want to take advantage of the time to
breakfast, for I am hungry!"
"Sire, now? shall we breakfast now?" asked the queen, amazed.
"Why not?" answered Louis calmly. "If the body is strengthened, we look at every thing more composedly and confidently. You must take breakfast too, Marie, for who knows whether we shall find time for some hours after this?"
"I! oh, I need no breakfast," cried Marie Antoinette; and as she saw Louis eagerly taking a cup of chocolate from the hands of a valet, and was going to enjoy it, she turned away to repress the tears of anger and pain which in spite of herself pressed into her eyes.
"Mamma queen," cried the dauphin, who was yet in her arms, "I should like my breakfast too. My chocolate—I should like my chocolate too!"
The queen compelled herself to smile, carried the child to its father, and softly set him down on the king's knee.
"Sire," said she, "will the King of France teach his son to take breakfast, while revolution is thundering without, and breaking down, with treasonable hands, the doors of the royal palace? Campan, come here—help me arrange my toilet; I want to prepare myself to give audience to revolution!"
And withdrawing to a corner of the room, the queen finished her toilet, for which her women fortunately had in their flight brought the materials.